Hoo boy... There's a whole ship-building interface, where you can customize your ship with whatever parts you've found. It can get pretty... crazy. Not to mention the editor is a bit weird, since you're essentially trying to manipulate a 3D object with 2D controls - to say there's a learning curve would be an understatement.
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agent86Mar 31 '12 at 4:06

I found this to be one of the most insanely random aspects of the game. The underlying plot, especially in KHII is also insanely random - but the custom gummi ship probably takes the cake. I strapped guns to anything and everything and that was about it. I never had any problem making it through gummi space though, and since I took no pleasure in it I did as little tweaking as possible.
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EBongoMar 31 '12 at 4:23

@agent86 Where do I find the ship-building interface?
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Ashley Nunn♦Mar 31 '12 at 4:24

Gum mishap is awesome, at least in kh2. Hear it wasn't great in 1
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Ben BrockaMar 31 '12 at 13:14

3 Answers
3

The Gummi ship creation system is complex and deep, (more the former than the latter, sadly), so I can't really do it complete justice in this space. Suffice it to say that you can pretty much just get by with the blueprints and blocks you find over the course of a normal playthrough. I found it to be moderately entertaining to customize my ship, but it has very little impact on gameplay except for making the Gummi ship flying sections easier. There's a FAQ over on GameFAQs you might want to read, although the data there is more about the blocks and some general advice than any sort of tutorial.

To access the Gummi ship interface, you can either press Square on the "universe map" screen, or you can talk to Cid in Traverse town:

From what I recall, he's usually in the Accessory Shop once you have access to this feature. He'll eventually sell gummi blocks, in case the sets you find over the course of the game are not adequate to satisfy your creative urges.

The editor itself is a tangled mess. Expect a high learning curve. There's a tutorial that is terribly inadequate, and you can pull up the controls, for what that helps. The problems with it boil down to trying to navigate an editing reticule in 3D space with a bunch of 2D controls and a 2D display. Sometimes you'll think you're right on top of a block, and you're not - you're on a different block, or you're off the ship altogether.

When it comes to ship building, you're generally trying to optimize across several axes:

The armor of your ship, which increases its ability to take damage and survive

The speed of your ship, which is a combination of engine power and wing maneuverability, and helps you avoid enemies and enemy fire

The firepower of your ship, which is controlled by its guns

There are also a few special items which have special powers, such as the cockpit's ability to heal damage, or the Haste gummi's ability to give you an afterburner power. The blocks themselves are all named after Final Fantasy series spells.

When it comes to building ships, the only requirements are:

One cockpit

Engine (or engines) pointing towards the rear of the design

This makes a ship blueprint "flyable." Connectedness of the blocks is largely irrelevant, from what I recall. You can build and find non-flyable ships, but you won't be able to use them to play the rail shooter Gummi ship minigame.

There is also a constraint on the number of blocks in the design and the overall size of the build area, but there are upgrades Cid sells at certain plot milestones which can help you grow these limits.

I generally just built a giant flying brick with wings on the side and a metric ton of guns and other useful bits hanging off of it. Sure, it wasn't ascetically pleasing, but nothing really survived long enough to complain about it.

I will also say that if you enjoyed this creation process, but want a better editor and more reason to use it, check out Banjo & Kazooie - Nuts and Bolts on the Xbox 360. The whole game revolves around a "build a vehicle and then use it to solve challenges" mechanic.
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agent86Mar 31 '12 at 13:14

You can have only so many gummies on your ship at a time, based on cost. As you progress through the game the limit increases. As for configuration, you can really do anything... You can have nothing but weapons and powerups floating, completely unattached to anything or even have a massive, solid block of gummies. Configurations are only there for customization, so you can make it look like anything you want.

A few choice excerpts from the Gamefaqs Gummi FAQ: here. This man has evidentally devoted his life to gummi ships, so by all means read his thesis level treatment of every aspect.

3.1 - Controls

S = square, T = triangle, O = circle

Build Mode

X - Place block

Hold X - Move block

O - Delete block

also, there is the loose constraint of needing a cockpit and a correctly aligned engine...

Not all ship designs are flyable. To be flyable, a ship must have a cockpit,
and an engine facing the correct direction. That means the thrust end points
in the opposite direction of the blue arrow in the construction grid.

Blocks do not have to touch each other. They can float anywhere you want.